Accept are one of those bands I really like. Now to be honest with you all I really dig about four Accept albums.
Those four albums would be “Restless And Wild”, “Balls To The Wall”, “Metal Heart” and “Eat The Heat”!
Yeah I listed the much criticized “Eat The Heat” as one of my favs but when that one dropped back in ’89 I liked that more melodic rock approach they were doing. A lead vocalist change had something to do with it as UDO was gone and David Reece stepped in at that the mic so I was onboard with that record but many weren’t..
Anyways I’m rambling on here…
The followup to “Balls To The Wall” came in the form of “Metal Heart” back in ’85 and all I can say that from the production (courtesy of Dieter Dirks) all the way to the songs written by the band themselves are stellar.
“Metal Heart” the title track leads off the record and how about UDO leading the charge as the song starts and he sings the line of…
“It is 1999
The human race has to face it
They are confronted with the truth
It’s secret, mysterious
A surgeon said it in the news
The human race is dying
But the result is no disease
Searching for you
Metal heart, metal heart
They found it everywhere
Metal heart, metal heart
Lifeless piece of steel”
This song stomps out of the gate and the thing is I have always loved Accept’s big backing vocals that these guys always had in most of their songs. “Metal Heart” is just that…METAL!
“Midnight Mover” is one of my favourites as it gets right out the gate with some killer riffing courtesy of guitarists Wolf Hoffman and Jorg Fisher. “Midnight Mover” also had that trippy bullet time video which if you are prone to seizures might not be a good one to watch. This tune has all those trimmings I like in a hard rock song.
“Metal Heart” is check full of great metal tracks that follow “Midnight Mover” like “Up To The Limit”, “Wrong Is Right” and “Screaming For A Love Bite” which is perhaps the most commercial track on the album.
Side 1 is flawless…
Side 2 lifts off with another gem in the form of “Too High To Get It Right” which has that huge bombastic like chorus as UDO sounds like he’s about to lose a lung yet the track is another one of those must listens…
Same with “Dogs On Leads” which has an almost AC/DC like opening feel to it before it ramps up. The last three tracks( “Teach Us How To Survive”, “Living For Tonite” and “Bound To Fail”)has Accept firing on all cylinders.
Amazing that after the foundation that Accept laid down in North America with the Balls album “Metal Heart” kinda stiffed which is really surprising to me.
Why? I have no idea as the songs-crisp production(I really like the use of blue and the Metal Heart cover) the whole deal here but for some crazy reason it only got to #86 in Canada and #94 in the U.S.
deKe’s Vinyl Rating- 8.5/10
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so I was listening to dokken today I’ll add this one too. Metal Heart sounds like a winner.
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Metal Heart will get your Heart pumping! lol
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I really liked this album, and the follow up “Russian Roulette” which at the time I thought was heavily AC/DC influenced but probably isn’t. The live EP “Kaizuko Ban” was also an interesting Christmas present from my parents (they did ask me what the song “Screaming for a Live Bite” was about!). Probably an argument in “Bound To Fail” for an early precursor to power metal in the same way “Fast As A Shark” was a pioneer of speed metal.
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Great album. I never had thought about Accept’s relative success and I didn’t realize the album bombed over here. But they succeeded in making a hell of a record.
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Kinda funny how some albums did not click when you think they would have.
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I love this album. Not a single song that I dislike. Equal to Balls to the Wall, in my opinion. Agreed with your score!
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Thanks pal and I fully agree with you 100%
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Okay, I need to give these guys a chance. I liked the song Balls to the walls, but never listened to an album because at the time they were too heavy for me. Not now. I am also reviewing a bunch of albums by that Dieter character. I kinda like his style.
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The production is killer and still holds well today. This is one of those must crank it up albums.
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I like those type of albums.
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‘Sea of Tranquility’ got me curious about Accept, so I’ll check them out eventually! I need to add them to my long list of bands/albums to check out lol.
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Thats a great problem to have Lana!
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Not according to my wallet lol!
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I was going to use your line on you…”where the hell do you find these bands” lol… but after listening…I remember this band. It’s been since the 80s but I remember them. Great stuff dude!
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Thanks Pal. A lot of times I discovered these bands back in the 80s on my own through magazines or friends as I had no older brothers to steal records from. lol
It was always cool to discover stuff on my own and even better if it didn’t suck! lol
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That is me on some of mine and then…I forget about them for a long time. The Replacements…I just stopped following them because my life got busy…of course now I’m back on target.
It does help when you still feel it for them.
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Well said Brother!
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Sounds like a sleeper hit. I’ll have to check this one out!
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It is especially if your looking to pump up your Metal Heart!
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I rate this above Balls. Maybe because it was my first Accept purchase and I played it more.
But I can’t disagree with anything written.
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Thanks Pal. Great Metal album and crazy to think it was over for them sales wise after this one in North America
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